1973

Saint-Saens / Symphony No. 3 (“Organ”) / Fremaux

More of the music of Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • Clear and transparent and natural – your ability to suspend disbelief requires practically no effort at all
  • What this copy did better than practically any other was show us just how rich, smooth and Tubey Magical 1973 EMI sound could be
  • “The whole work is a magnificent and fantastical symphonic machine that’s an apotheosis of the orchestral technology of the late 19th century.”
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we’ve awarded the honor of offering the Best Performances with the Highest Quality Sound, and this record certainly deserve a place on that list.

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Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies

More of the Music of Alice Cooper

  • A vintage Warner Bros. Palm Trees pressing with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
  • It’s the impossibly rare copy that’s this lively, solid and rich… drop the needle on the title track and you’ll see what we mean
  • This copy is proof that finding the right balance of fullness and clarity on this album may not be easy but it can be done
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these Classic Rock records – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Song for song, Billion Dollar Babies is probably the original Alice Cooper group’s finest and strongest… It remains one of rock’s all-time, quintessential classics.”

Billion Dollar Babies can sound big and powerful, but not many copies bring the sound to life the way this one does. For once you can hear a big room around the instruments; the bass is tight and well-defined, and there’s plenty of tubey richness.

This was also one of the copies that managed to get real three-dimensional space in the soundfield, bringing Alice up front, with the rest of the band arrayed behind him from wall to wall.

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Queen – Self-Titled

More Queen


  • With two seriously good Double Plus (A++) sides, we guarantee you’ve never heard Queen’s debut album sound this good – fairly quiet vinyl too
  • Both sides here are big, full-bodied, super clear and spacious with a huge bottom end and tons of rock energy
  • “Almost every one of Queen’s signatures are already present, from Freddie Mercury’s operatic harmonies to Brian May’s rich, orchestral guitar overdubs and the suite-like structures of ‘Great King Rat’… It showcases the band in all their ornate splendor yet it’s strangely lean and hard, revealing just how good the band was in their early days as a hard rock band.”

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Bob Dylan – Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid (Original Soundtrack Recording)

More Bob Dylan

More Soundtrack Albums

  • An incredible copy of Dylan’s 1973 soundtrack album with Nearly Triple Plus (A++ to A+++) sound on both sides – just shy of our Shootout Winner
  • This one is doing practically everything right – it’s bigger, bolder, richer and more clean, clear and open than almost anything else we played
  • Includes the hit “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” which charted on the Top 20 and would be famously covered in later years by the likes of Eric Clapton and Guns N’ Roses
  • “This record also proved that Dylan could shoehorn his music within the requirements of a movie score without compromising its content or quality, something that only the Beatles, unique among rock artists, had really managed to do up to that time…”

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Grand Funk – We’re An American Band

More Grand Funk

More Rock Classics

  • A stunning pressing with Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or close to it from first note to the last – exceptionally quiet vinyl too
  • One of the best copies to hit the site in years, with sides that are full-bodied, lively and present, with a solid bottom end
  • More important, here is all the rock and roll energy that would simply be missing in action on any reissue made these days
  • It’s tough to find good Grand Funk sound on audiophile quality playing surfaces, but these sides did the trick
  • 4 1/2 stars: “Sonically, the record was sharp and detailed and the band’s playing was far tighter and more accomplished… The album’s title song, an autobiographical account of life on the road written and sung by Brewer, was released in advance of the album and became a gold-selling number one hit, Grand Funk’s first really successful single.”
  • If you’re a fan of the band, this title from 1973 is clearly one of their best, and unquestionably one of their best sounding

If you don’t already know, take our word for it: not many copies of this record will have much in the way of good sound. Grand Funk was not a band marketed to audiophiles. Their recordings tend to be crude and compressed, more radio-friendly than home-stereo-friendly.

This copy is a BIG step up from every other that we played. You’ll have a very hard time finding another one with two sides as good as this.

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Electric Light Orchestra – On the Third Day

More Electric Light Orchestra

More Art Rock

  • With seriously good Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish, this copy is guaranteed to blow the doors off any other On The Third Day you’ve heard
  • This domestic LP is proof that the master tape used to cut the album in 1973 was right here in the good old U.S. of A.
  • Marks in the vinyl are sometimes the nature of the beast with these vintage LPs – there simply is no way around them if the superior sound of vintage analog is important to you
  • “Electric Light Orchestra’s third album showed a marked advancement, with a fuller, more cohesive sound from the band as a whole and major improvements in Jeff Lynne’s singing and songwriting.”
  • “The ELO’s blending of rock drums, pop violins, a semiclassical feel in the sweep of these same violins, the midrange colors of the cello, and a vocal blend that reminds one of the Beatles in their sophisticated studio days, makes up all the key elements in their music.”

Once you’ve played a good domestic pressing, it’s obvious that the Brit vinyl is made from sub-generation copy tapes. The imports make it sound like someone threw a blanket over your speakers.

We know this because we had a bunch of them cleaned up for our first big shootout in 2010 and they all sucked. We always buy Electric Light Orchestra records on import vinyl; those are the ones that sound the best, the domestic pressings time and again sounding as though they were mastered from dub tapes.

But On The Third Day is proof that this is not always the case, just as Siren proves that the best Roxy Music albums are not always British. Live and learn I guess. (more…)

Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge – Full Moon

More Kris Kristofferson

More Rita Coolidge

  • You’ll find excellent Double Plus (A++) sound throughout this early A&M pressing
  • The vocals are wonderfully breathy and sweet, the bass is killer and everything is natural and musical
  • 4 stars: “Despite Kristofferson’s greater celebrity, the LP was made with Coolidge’s strengths in mind. . . The songs were set in her key, with Kristofferson crooning along in an unusually high register. The tempos were mostly slow, emphasizing the dreamy quality of Coolidge’s voice.”

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Gram Parsons – GP

More Country and Country Rock

  • A KILLER sounding copy and the first to hit the site in many years; both sides have Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it
  • This copy is doing just about everything right — clean, clear, full-bodied and present with tons of energy and a nicely extended top end
  • “… his first solo album, 1973’s G.P., is probably the best realized expression of his musical personality. Working with a crack band of L.A. and Nashville’s finest, he drew from them a sound that merged breezy confidence with deeply felt Southern soul… this album remains a haunting reminder of Parsons’ talent and influence, and has only gotten better with the passing years.” 

If you’re a fan of country rock, this is some of the finest you’ll ever hear. James Burton, Ron Tutt and Byron Berline all play on here and quite well I might add. The harmonies between Gram and Emmylou are absolutely breathtaking, just drop the needle on ’We’ll Sweep Out The Ashes In The Morning’ to hear what I’m talking about.

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Saint-Saens / Symphony No. 3 / Fremaux

More of the music of Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)

More Classical and Orchestral Recordings

  • A superb British import of one of Saint-Saens’ greatest masterpieces, with outstanding Double Plus (A++) sound from start to finish
  • Clear and transparent and natural – your ability to suspend disbelief requires practically no effort at all
  • To be clear, the Greensleeves pressings do not win shootouts, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come close
  • If you’re looking for an excellent performance of the symphony with superb sound, it’s hard to go wrong here
  • “The whole work is a magnificent and fantastical symphonic machine that’s an apotheosis of the orchestral technology of the late 19th century.”
  • There are about 150 orchestral recordings we’ve awarded the honor of offering the Best Performances with the Highest Quality Sound, and this recording certainly deserve a place on that list.

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The Blues… A Real Summit Meeting

More B.B. King

More Electric Blues

  • You’ll find superb Double Plus (A++) sound or BETTER on all FOUR sides of this vintage Buddah Brown & Pink Label double album from 1973
  • This copy is wonderfully spacious, full-bodied and natural, with a nice extended top end, plenty of space around the instruments and few of the problems that plagued most of the pressings we played
  • Features B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Big Mama Thornton, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and more
  • Recorded live at Newport in New York, this is an OUTSTANDING blues album

Listen to ’Big Mama’ Thorton’s voice on this record — it sounds like somebody forgot to put a limiter on her mic. It is without a doubt one of the most dynamic vocals I have ever heard on any record in my entire life. You feel like you are sitting front row center.

This record sounds JUST RIGHT to me. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything you could do to it to make it sound better. It’s tonally correct from top to bottom and very transparent. If you want a great introduction to the blues, I can’t think of a better one than this. (more…)